


Carpe Omnia

by ElisabethMonroe



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Aliens, Alternate Universe - Aliens, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Pirate, Alternate Universe - Teachers, Alternate Universe - Vietnam, Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M, Meet-Cute, Stargazing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-05
Updated: 2017-08-06
Packaged: 2018-12-11 12:31:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 15,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11714448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElisabethMonroe/pseuds/ElisabethMonroe
Summary: In Which:Ronan and Adam go to DCRonan is a pirateAdam fights in VietnamHenry sees more than he wanted at a fundraiserRonan and Adam stargazeRonan and Adam are weirdRonan and Adam meetAnd Adam and Ronan are a bit too energetic





	1. Vagary

**Author's Note:**

> Just a collection of my Pynchweek Tumblr fics!  
> As usual, all mistakes are my own. Feel free to point them out.  
> Will post new ratings/warnings at the beginning of each chapter  
> Want me to consider expanding on a ficlet? Let me know!  
> Title: Seize everything

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something old, something new

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No new warnings/ratings  
> Title: A whimsical/wild idea

DC in the day was not the same city as DC at night. Adam loved DC in the day. He felt like he thrived best while either sweating or freezing his ass off walking from class to an internship to work. He loved the people he met and loved that it was easier to hate people here because that just confirmed his own beliefs and opinions. Ronan would love DC at night. Adam had lost count of how often he’d listened to engines revving outside his window and then the screech of tires on asphalt or the drunken voices arguing with each other under his window about important things or nothing at all. The eerie orange glow from streetlights and the throbbing of police lights every now and then always made it difficult for Adam to sleep but he imagined his boyfriend would be just fine in the seemingly half reality.

Adam hadn’t expect to be back in DC quite so soon after leaving it. As it was, he wasn’t done with his doctoral degree at Harvard and had a steady job teaching during the summer when he was home in Virginia. But Georgetown University, his alma mater and always where he felt most at home after the Barns, had called and asked him to do a week long lecture series in tandem with a few other young political names. As the only Georgetown name on the list, he felt a little obligated to commit. So there he was in DC again, in a nice hotel just a few blocks away from his old dorm rooms and even closer to the capital and monuments.

Had he come with Gansey or Blue, even if he’d brought Opal along with him, he knew a tour would be in order, no matter how many times Gansey had seen all of it and no matter how many rants he was sure Blue could get on, and no matter… Well, Opal would actually probably like it. But he wasn’t with any of them. He was with Ronan and Ronan had given him the most bland look Adam had ever seen from when Adam conspicuously pointed out how close they were to all the sightseeing venues. So that was out of the question.

Even with his constant rejection of everything Adam offered they do, Ronan was restless in their room. He was wearing the carpet into the next floor and driving Adam up a wall.

“Do you want to go to the bar my friends and I always went to?” he suggested as he shut his laptop and moved it away from him. If he didn’t get Ronan out of this room, he was going to potentially murder him.

“And be crowded in by freshmen with fake IDs who’ve never had a drink in their life?” Ronan scoffed. He rolled his eyes and threw a complimentary water bottle between his hands.

“Then…do you want to go to the cafes I did all my homework in?” Adam suggested.

“Didn’t you do anything interesting when you were in school?”

“Not at eleven at night, no,” Adam admitted sarcastically. Ronan rolled hi eyes and continued pacing. Eventually he stopped and went to the fridge before scowling at what he found.

“We’re going shopping,” he decided. “Come on, let’s go.”

“Where do you plan to do that?” Adam asked dubiously. Maybe he trusted himself not to get turned around in the daytime being so close to campus but he hadn’t come this way often unless he was doing work at some of the museums and libraries. Even then, he took the bus from his dorm and his destination. Trying to navigate at night was out of the question.

But Ronan seemed sure and he grabbed Adam’s keys and threw a jacket at him. “There’s a CVS a few blocks up from here.”

“And what is so important that we need to go find a CVS an hour before it closes?” He set the jacket aside because it was early September and muggy summer heat still hung in the air. He crossed to Ronan and opened the door, unsurprised when Ronan darted out in front of him and already started striding to elevator without waiting for Adam. Adam made sure he at least had the room key before following after him.

“I want mac and cheese. And ice cream. We have neither,” Ronna explained when they both folded into the elevator.

“God, living with Opal really brought out all your adolescent tendencies, huh?” Adam teased. He let out a squawk when Ronan suddenly had him against the elevator wall, hands on his hips.

“Should we pick up lube and condoms too then?” he murmured against Adam’s jaw, working a mark just under his ear.

“Ronan,” Adam objected though he did nothing to stop him, “we’re in public. And we packed that anyway.”

The elevator stuttered to its stop and Ronan untangled himself from Adam smoothly and quickly and stepped out of the doors before they’d even finished opening. Adam was left a little lightheaded and unsatisfied. He managed to scowl after Ronan and get his shoulder knocked in by the elevator door when he finally did try to get out of the elevator.

As suspected, the air was sticky and Adam could already tell Ronan was going to use that as an excuse to shower. Again. Adam jogged to catch up to Ronan who looked like he knew where he was going with the confidence of someone who’d gone before. Maybe he and his family had stayed at the same hotel. Or him and Gansey. There were so many little things like that that he wanted to dig out of Ronan’s history and remember them.

Two girls walking the other way on the sidewalk looked Ronan up and down and started to giggle to each other so Adam wrapped an arm around his waist and slid his hand in his back pocket.

Ronan glanced down at him and smirked, wrapping his own arm around Adam’s shoulders and tugging him close. He pressed his lips to Adam’s temple and kept his eyes on the girls until they tensely passed each other. Adam heard more giggles but he didn’t really care. Down one alley, a raucous group of frat guys urged a buddy to finish a drink while several girls stood around looking unimpressed and Adam had to smile slightly at the memories it pulled to the surface of his mind.

Ronan really did know where he was going and within minutes, he had them in the small parking lot of of a run down CVS. It was exactly the kind of place Adam had come to expect of his college town. Because that’s what Washington was to him. It wasn’t the capitol unless he was being particularly sentimental. It was just the place he went to college and that was going to be how he was going to remember it.

Ronan’s jumping out of the way and running to the other side of the parking lot pulled Adam from his reminiscing. He squinted against the flickering streetlight and then started laughing when he saw Ronan come back riding on a cart and grinning like a fool.

“Jump on!” he shouted just in time for Adam to do so and go wheeling to the other side of the parking lot. They veered up the incline of the pavement and then fell back down the other way. Despite being ready for it, Adam still cried out in pain when he hit the ground and felt half of the skin on his arm stay behind.

Ronan managed to land over him–though Adam had the feeling there was a bit of a shuffle before hand. Adam brought his hands up to either side of Ronan’s face and grinned at him as he felt his heart pulsing with adoration for the man above him.

“You have no idea how badly I wanted to kiss you the first time we did this,” he laughed, tracing the bow in Ronan’s upper lip with his thumb.

“You didn’t even know you were gay yet,” Ronan laughed before kissing Adam’s thumb.

“Shut up. You and your stupid face were giving me some idea.” His smile faltered a little as he got lost in thought and then he started laughing. “I actually looked up how two guys would…you know. I wanted to be ready. I thought for sure you’d know after that.”

Ronan grinned down at him and then kissed him. “Is that why you were so terrible at sex the first time we tried?”

“At least someone had groped me before I went to bed with you. You damn near came as soon as I touched you.”

Ronan scowled at him but it didn’t last long before they were kissing each other again, hands on faces and heads and necks.

“You looked so perfect that night,” Adam sighed when Ronan pressed his forehead against Adam’s. “It was one of the happiest moments I ever caught you in.”

“How do I look tonight?” Ronan asked with a slow smile spreading over his lips.

“So, so, so much better,” Adam promised. Ronan kissed him again.


	2. Exculpatory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Home on the high seas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No new ratings/warnings  
> Title: Clearing a charge of guilt

Captain Opal was probably not the most damning name for a pirate but with a mean streak a mile wide and a plethora of lore to follow him around as diligently as the raven that sat over his shoulder and had a glare to match the Captain’s, no one was willing to comment on it. Lore included but was not limited to; he’d blown up an adversary on the high seas for nothing more than mocking his sails, he’d murdered his brother just to get on the seas, his name was Opal because he had seventy pounds worth of opal stones stashed away somewhere inland, he burned the ports he came to, he’d never been bribed by the offer of a woman, the bird was actually the demon that owned his soul’s vessel and it needed to see him at all time because his ship was fast enough to even outrun a spawn of hell.

Ronan had to laugh at some of them. He wasn’t often offered women and denying a stay at a brothel was never a difficult choice and had no bearing on how strong his resolve was. His bird wasn’t a demon that he knew of and if someone took his seventy pounds of Opal, they’d give it back within the hour. Some of them baffled him. Of course he didn’t burn down the ports he came to. That was bad for business. And most of them were just wrong. He hadn’t killed his brother but he wasn’t going to give anyone a lead line back into his past to hunt him down.  _He_ hadn’t blown up The Forgery and the entire situation hadn’t occurred because of his sails.

One of the only true myths about Captain Opal was that he never docked his ship to come home. It was true. Captain Opal would dock for a few days, exchanging whatever he wanted to and set off again. Whether or not it always Ronan getting back on the ship made no never mind. Captain Opal was on the seas again and never went home. Ronan went home often. He was going home now.

He’d swapped out his clothes with Blue and let her take them back to the ship as she changed into her own gear to take on the name of Captain Opal. Then Ronan walked home in normal trousers and an old jacket that never drew any looks like the dark, sweeping navy one he wore on the deck of his ship.

When he got home, his Opal was already waiting outside, yanking on her father’s arm as she bounced around excitedly. He had an arm over one shoulder and under the other arm to hold her still so Ronan made quick work of striding down the lane of trodden dirt between tall, swaying seagrass and scooped her into his arms, kissing her cheek and laughing as she squealed in delight when his beard scratched her cheek.

“How is the most vexing sea nymph in all the oceans?” he asked as she held onto his neck tightly.

“We were painting!” she said with a grin. She didn’t bother to free a hand to show him. There was enough paint on her old sleeping shirt to convince him.

Ronan turned to Adam and couldn’t help the swell of love and comfort that overtook him. He wrapped his free arm around Adam’s waist and tugged him closer to press a kiss to his forehead. His heart kicked up when Adam rested his hand over Ronan’s chest and he felt the other man smile as he kissed Ronan’s cheek.

“Welcome home,” he murmured.

“I expect a better welcome later,” Ronan growled playfully, kissing him and then wrapping his arm around Opal tighter.

He loved the sea. He loved sailing. He could have spent all his life doing just that. The rumors of Captain Opal never going home would have been true. And then a little stowaway academic was found in his cargo hold and from the first terrible punch he threw with ink covered knuckles, Ronan was smitten and he knew he’d never truly be happy alone at sea. He would have kept Adam by his side if Adam had ever found his sea legs. But, as it turned out, Adam had neither legs nor stomach for the sea and he scrambled off the ship the first chance he got.

Ronan was the one who suggested he wait out just another port stop because he had a family home in the country and he and Adam could be safe there. They could settle down together and never be seen again. Only, as soon as he’d coaxed Adam back onto his ship, there was another stowaway, a little girl this time, so like Ronan himself he thought she might have come from his subconscious in a vicious dream about the family he wouldn’t have. Opal was far more trouble on deck than Ronan could have and so he sent her to the farm house with Adam and he came home to them as often as he could.

The following weeks at sea, after finding Opal, were filled with longing gazes at the retreating ocean and exasperated sighs from Adam. When they docked and went home, Adam pressed his fingers to Ronan’s mouth and told him to go back to the ship and to keep doing what he loved. Had Ronan not, in fact, loved Adam’s fingers against his lips, he would have argued that this right then was what he loved. But it’d only be a half truth. He’d always love the sea too.

After two months straight on the water, though, he was quite happy to be in his family’s arms again. His legs still swayed under him and he still smelt of salt and wood but the grass and dirt was coming back to him.

“Did you bring me anything?” Opal asked, tugging on Ronan’s beard when she felt he wasn’t paying enough attention to her.

“Are you gonna let go of me so I can get it for you?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. She cackled at that and shoved her fingers against his face as she tried to force it back down. Eventually she started squirming in his arms until she fell back to the ground.

He squatted in front of her and dug in the pocket of his coat. He produced a small wooden figurine with painstaking details. “I stole this from a witch,” he said in a stage whisper. Adam snorted above them but the look on Opal’s face was worth it.

“What kind of witch? A sea witch? A real sea witch? Did she have a fish tail? Did she have gills? Were her eyes sea shells?”

Ronan laughed and smoothed his thumb over the figurine’s features. “Everything. She had wild hair and eyes that glowed like sea glass. She spoke like the waves in a storm and she had scales all over her arms and legs. Gills all right here,” he said, reaching out to tickle Opal’s ribs and then tugged her to his chest, kissing her cheek and blowing raspberries against her neck and shoulder. She shrieked in delight and then reached for his hand, uncurling his fingers and taking the small doll.

“What does the doll do?”

“What should the doll do?” Ronan asked.

“Well, if it came from a sea witch, it should be cursed, right?” she demanded. “Or possessed. It has to be magic.”

“It makes sure little girls are in bed when they’re supposed to be,” Adam said with a smirk. Opal stuck her tongue out at him.

“Look at this,” Ronan said, reaching out and moving her little fingers out of the way. “See how her heart is right there? That means that whoever has the other doll can always feel your heart and know that you’re close.”

“Well who has the other doll?”

Ronan smiled and pulled a second one out of his pocket. Opal beamed. “You’re going to keep it? Will you sleep with it?  Will you even hold it when you’re arguing with other pirates?”

Ronan’s heart clenched in his chest as he realized just how much he loved both the people near him. “I’ll always keep it near me because I always want to be near you.”

“What about one for dad?” she asked, holding up her hand for Adam to take. He smiled at her and took it, looking at Ronan with a raised eyebrow. “Yeah, what about one for dad?”

Ronan grinned up at him and reached in his pocket again. “Well, she wouldn’t give me another doll,” he said and saw Opal pout out of the corner of his eye but he kept his focus on Adam. “But I did find this and I thought you might like to have a matching set.” He opened up his hand with two rings in his palm and Adam may have rolled his eyes but Ronan didn’t miss the stutter in his breathing.

“What does that do?” Opal asked but fell quiet when Adam went to his knees and wrapped his arms around Ronan’s neck.

“Ro, you can’t just do things like that,” he mumbled against Ronan’s shoulder. Ronan laughed and wrapped his arms around Adam to hold him close.

“I can and I will. Here, put it on.” He kept them close, foreheads together, but with enough space to get their hands between their bodies. He worked the bigger one on his own finger and slid the other one Adam’s.

“What’s that?” Opal asked again.

“It means that we belong together and that no matter what, he comes back to us.”

“Well, I want one too!”

“You can have one when you’re older. When you fall in love too.”

Opal made a noise of disgust and started tracing out the designs in her figurine. Adam wrapped his arms around Ronan’s neck and pulled him into a soft, tender kiss.

“Welcome home, darling,” he murmured softly. And Ronan felt like he was. If only the myth writers could see him now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> His pirate name was going to be Chainsaw but then those hadn’t been invented yet so that was too bad


	3. Lacuna

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coincidence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Same rating.  
> Character death warning.  
> Violence warning.  
> Title: An empty/missing space

Adam could feel mud sliding down the back of his uniform as he writhed in the middle of the battle field. Writhing wasn’t the best choice of words. That would imply some sort of motive behind moving. Mostly his body was reacting on base nervous instincts. His gun had fallen from his hands some minutes ago and people were still running past him as if they couldn’t see him at all. Someone had shut his eyes earlier and it took all his strength to open them again.

He felt like his entire body was shaking in pain, though he’d long since stopped actually feeling anything. His hands shook as he held them over his stomach and his stomach shook as blood pumped out of it with every heartbeat. He tried to look down, to see if it looked as much like jello as it felt but all he could see was his soppy uniform and dark hands. Blood and mud caked everything in his vision and he dropped his head back to the earth under him.

When he managed to open his eyes next, Ronan was kneeling over him. That wasn’t right. Ronan was in school. His parents had made sure he was in school when all of this broke out. Him and Gansey and Gansey’s girl Blue and the Henry kid who’d offered to pay for a semester of Adam’s tuition if it meant Ronan stopped fighting everything in his path.

It had been a bad few weeks before his deployment. Adam didn’t know why he hadn’t told Ronan. He hadn’t told his father, but that was hardly a fair comparison. Especially when he had told Gansey after showing up to his old warehouse studio in tears one evening. Adam supposed he would have told Ronan if he’d been there that night. But when Ronan kicked his mattress the next morning to wake up Adam and demand why he was there, Adam had shrugged and lied and never told him. So, two weeks later, when they were getting handsy in Adam’s shitty car and Ronan kicked the glove box by accident and the letter spilled out with the rest of the trash in there, Ronan had been furious.

He argued with the military officer who was dealing with Adam’s enlistment. He fought with his father to let him join up too. He shouted at Gansey and Adam both for keeping it from him. He got into no less than five fights within three days and broke his nose behind a bar that only let them in on account of Gansey’s mother. He’d been fierce and fuming when Adam left and now here he was, looking like an old photograph from Henry’s camera in his black tank top and short hair and ugly jeans.

“Am I dreaming? What are you doing here?” Adam mumbled because, while it was hard to find soldiers willing to fight, he was pretty sure they weren’t to just letting people out in civilian clothes. Adam brought up a hand to Ronan’s cheek, smearing blood and dirt across his pale skin. Ronan didn’t seem to mind, crossing his own behind Adam’s and kissing his palm to leave a bloody handprint across his face.

“I’m taking you home,” he said against Adam’s skin. That didn’t sound quite right. There was something that should’ve been keeping Adam where he was, but he didn’t care to figure out what it was.

Ronan dug his arm through the mud to wrap around Adam’s waist. The scratchy material of his fatigues irritated his back as the mud slid away and when Adam stumbled against Ronan’s chest, the blood on his face was gone. Adam thought he shouldn’t let their stomachs touch for some reason, but they looked fine when he glanced down.

The muddy earth tilted and slipped away from them and Adam buried his aching head against Ronan’s shoulder. When he dared look around again, there was a bonfire and Henry’s Volkswagen and Gansey’s Mustang and Ronan had them leaning on the edge of his sleek black Impala. One of Blue’s records was playing from the roof of the Mustang and Ronan grinned at him, reaching for his hand.

“Dance with me, Parrish,” he ordered with a laugh that was light and carefree and exactly the kind of laugh Adam was always striving for. He let himself be pulled close to Ronan, his pants bunching up between their thighs and his tight, wrong sized shirt pulled taut over his shoulders as Ronan held onto his wrists and pulled his hands forward and backwards in the most stationary dance Adam had ever been part of.

He naturally leaned back as Ronan leaned over him and then leaned over Ronan in turn after they straightened up. He couldn’t help but laugh when Ronan spun them in a crazy circle that had Adam understanding force and gravity. The stars blended together over head and the fire appeared and disappeared every rotation.

Henry was singing loudly around them and Gansey was only infuriating Blue when he started to sing every time she told Henry to stop. Home, Adam remembered Ronan saying. He hadn’t been sure where they’d end up. Gansey’s studio or the Impala or Ronan’s dorm room or somewhere else. But he realized it didn’t matter because home was with these people.

Ronan pulled him up and kissed him hard enough to get Adam’s heart going. Home was wherever Ronan took him.

____________________________

Gansey got the news two weeks apart. A withered part of him that refused to be overcome by emotion wondered why news of similar events happening on the same night would be so very different in getting to him, but the rest of him just ached and screamed at the loss of a brother and a best friend.

Ronan had been looking for trouble and Gansey should have never left him at the studio alone. They said the car was so mangled around the light pole it was a miracle they got him out in one piece. They said it was a miracle nothing caught on fire for the amount of alcohol in the vehicle, on Ronan’s breath. Niall was so distraught over his son’s death it had to be Aurora who told Gansey all the terrible details over and over as he broke down in loud sobs that kept him from hearing her every other sentence.

Gansey didn’t know if it was Adam or Ronan who’d switched Adam’s permanent address on the enlistment forms to the studio. It wasn’t like Adam’s parents would have cared. They probably wouldn’t have even read the letter. Gansey had. Barely, his hands shaking so badly he had to lay it out on the mattress Adam always used when he stayed over just to keep the paper still. He’d been caught in a trench and enemy fire had been heavy and the military offered all their condolences to his family. Gansey crumbled the paper and threw it out the nearest window before running down the steps to grab it back.

He couldn’t believe the dates. He couldn’t believe that this had happened. Not to him. Not to them. This coincidence was too much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Firstly, sorry. Secondly, yeah it’s shorter but I was making myself sad.  
> I like the image of Ronan with an Impala, sue me.  
> Yes I know it’s Adam who looks like a sepia picture but bear with me and Adam’s pain impaired vision.  
> Yes I know Adam goes to college not Ronan but, again, sue me. I think these book would have taken a lot of different paths if they were was set in the 60s, which is always interesting to think about


	4. Stultify

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Straight as a tie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mature verging on explicit rating.  
> No warnings.  
> Title: To make or cause to appear foolish or ridiculous

Henry had not seen this outcome. In fact, he hadn’t predicted much of the night, but Gansey had told him that would happen. Someone was always there to ruin something. Henry had had money on Lynch but Parrish felt like a betrayal. He didn’t know Parrish very well. He was a last minute addition (and savior) gifted by Blue when the girl who was supposed to be sitting next to Ronan at the event suddenly couldn’t make it. Henry was sure it had something to do with the rehearsal in which she actually met her escort.

The problem with Ronan Lynch, if Henry had to narrow it down to just one in this instance, was that every other pair at the event was not only tailored and classically beautiful in a way that made Henry’s toes curl, but they were all actually together. The idea of Ronan Lynch _with_ someone else made Henry’s head hurt for the absurdity. But he knew there’d be no arguing with Gansey about Lynch’s presence. He’d lose Gansey and Blue before he got Lynch out the door.

It wasn’t to say that Lynch wasn’t beautiful. He was beautiful the same way a panther eating a small baby animal was beautiful. The kind of beautiful that reminded Henry just how much he didn’t like nature’s own beauty and would prefer to watch America’s Next Top Model until he forgot about dead animals. It was only because Henry had seen Ronan as a dead animal just as soon as he dropped his panther persona that Henry had faith in his ability to get through this night without doing something stupid.

It was a misplaced faith.

Now, Henry hadn’t known Adam as well, but he looked like a good kid. All southern drawl and tan skin and bright eyes. If someone had suddenly asked to recast Midnight Cowboy, Adam Parrish was the quintessential po-dunk kid. He didn’t even argue that much when Henry had gently suggested he and Ronan act a little more couple-y.

Henry had missed the dead baby animal look that flashed across Lynch’s face, keeping his eyes and hopes on Adam’s embarrassed smile and nod. He’d kissed Adam’ forehead, ran through the places they’d be moving throughout the night for various events and then left them to their devices. Adam would manage to corral Lynch for a few hours. Lynch wouldn’t be so stupid as to run off a complete stranger.

“Adam Parrish,” Adam greeted with a slightly easier smile, offering his hand out.

“Ronan Lynch,” Ronan responded in kind. Adam didn’t know Ronan so he missed the slightly mis-pitched catch in his voice and his marginally wider eyes. Ronan was going to have to get this under control.

“Boyfriends for the evening?” Adam suggested. Ronan wondered if hicks were supposed to clean up as well as Adam did. Ronan knew that was one of Gansey’s old suits. It was an ugly off navy color that didn’t fit Adam properly in the legs or arms. Either Blue or Henry had done a fine job hemming them to look stylish though. It was definitely Gansey’s doing that the guy wasn’t wearing socks with his shoes. It was Ronan’s least favorite fashion trend but this guy was really killing it. Even the ugly color laid nicely against his darkened skin.

“Henry’s weird. He’s got this aesthetic thing going on in his mind and he’s the only one who can see it,” Ronan explained with a shrug. He knew all about pointless aesthetics.

“What event even is this?” Adam asked as he knocked his shoulder into Ronan’s to start them towards the first chairs they’d be occupying for the evening.

“Gansey’s mom, Senator extraordinaire if you keep up with that shit, throws these benefits and she loves to see the ‘young people’ out in droves. She thinks it inspires other kids to go vote.”

“So we’re part of a marketing scheme?”

Ronan shrugged. “Guess so.” Then Adam pulled out Ronan’s chair and grandly swept his arm for Ronan to take his seat. Ronan nearly keeled over.

“You this nice to all your dates?” he asked as he sat and scooted the chair in.

“Yeah, it’s actually what lost me Blue.”

Again, Ronan felt his heart stutter in his chest. This boy was going to kill him. “Henry hired a straight guy to play gay with me? Fuck, Henry hired Blue’s ex to play gay with me?”

Adam laughed the most perfect sound that was probably too close to a guffaw for Ronan to be so enamoured by it. This night could not be over soon enough.

“Blue and I didn’t really date. We were…ex-maybes, if you believe in that kind of thing.” Ronan hadn’t until now. “And, besides, if I’m _playing_ gay, it really doesn’t matter who I’m interested in anyway. It’s all an act.” The smirk he sent Ronan once he was sat too said he knew exactly why Ronan had asked.  This wasn’t fair.

Before Ronan could press more, Adam turned to the older man next to him and began a lively conversation pertaining to the likelihood of getting legislation passed and standing up in the face of adversity. Ronan did not speak to the person on his other side. He glowered at the napkin in front of him and ignored the rising din of noise as people started crowding around the table and talking to each other. He only lifted his eyes when a straw wrapper was suddenly laying in his empty plate and he found Blue glaring at him and darting her eyes towards Adam. Ronan looked over but Adam still looked engrossed in his conversation so he went back to his napkin until another wrapper hit his head and fell to the table. Now when he looked up, Gansey looked indignant and stupidly in love and Blue had a knife in her hand.

He let out a suffering sigh and turned to Adam. “Can I steal him back?” he asked as politely as he could manage, already wrapping his arm around Adam’s shoulders and turning him to face the proper way. But he was interrupted again when there were suddenly waitstaff swooping in with the first course, a soup in a red that made Ronan stomach turn over.

As it turned out, he needn’t worry about distracting himself from the dish because as soon as some friend of a friend of a friend of a friend started talking up at the front, he felt a very thorough distraction. A warm hand was smoothing up and down his thigh, long fingers just brushing his inseam and sending sparks of feeling along his stomach.

He wanted to turn and glare at Adam but that would probably be a little conspicuous and it would alert Blue to what was going on and that was the last thing he wanted. He felt Adam’s hand move up his thigh and settled against his hip as he leaned over and started fussing with Ronan’s collar.

“Your tie isn’t straight,” he tsked and even from the awkward way they were positioned together, Ronan could see a smirk on his beautiful lips. Seriously, who actually had dusky pink lips?

“You’re making a scene, Parrish,” he warned lowly. Adam flickered those stupid lashes up and had his stupid eyes on Ronan’s and Ronan forgot what he was complaining about.

“I’m just playing the dutiful boyfriend,” Adam said, mock hurt and confusion in his voice. And, damn, Ronan knew it wasn’t real but he still never wanted to hear that tone weighing down all the pretty lilts in Adam’s voice ever again.

Adam sat back and listened to the rest of the speech, occasionally taking a sip from his soup and then waited for everyone to start clapping to swap his and Ronan’s bowls around so it looked like Ronan had actually eaten something.

As the evening progressed, Ronan realized he was very good at that. Picking up on little cues and switching accordingly. He did it remarkably fast too, so when he swapped out Ronan’s tomatoes for Adam’s olives in the salad and then gave Ronan ranch and took his butter it all seemed like they’d been dating for forever and knew each other’s dietary quirks. Ronan wanted to know what he was tell was because, fuck, even Gansey didn’t notice he didn’t like butter.

Adam was also remarkably good at teasing the ever living shit out of Ronan. It honestly wasn’t fair, the kind of bullshit he was pulling. He hooked his foot behind Ronan’s at one point to spread his legs just a little more than the sprawl Ronan normally sat in. His hand was never away from Ronan’s thigh and by the time the desert speech was through, Ronan was a little desperate and not willing to go through one more table rotation. Not like this. Instead, when everyone tucked into tiramisu, he slid from his seat and strode towards the bathroom.

Adam had followed because of course he had. And now it was Ronan’s turn.

Adam gasped as he was shoved up against the wall in the bathroom and his hands automatically went to Ronan’s jacket lapels. “You’re not even gonna use a stall?” he asked breathlessly as adrenaline and a concentrated amount of fear coursed through his body.

“There are people who’d say I can’t even manage anger management and you think you’re gonna stroke me off in the middle of a fundraiser?” Ronan growled and it went straight through Adam. He gasped and dropped his head back and now Ronan was working on the same wavelength as him. His mouth was about as perfect as it looked and Adam never wanted it away from his neck.

“This is…very real for a game,” he breathed, moving a hand to the back of Ronan’s neck.

“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ronan mumbled against Adam’s neck. He dropped his head to the tie and shrugged. “I’m just fixing your tie. It isn’t straight.”

“Neither am I, it’s fine,” Adam assured, pulling Ronan’s head up and kissing him properly. Adam felt the world slow for that moment before Ronan suddenly had his hands on Adam’s pants, unbuttoning them and then pulling him up by his thighs. Adam gladly wrapped his legs around Ronan’s waist and clung onto him as Ronan rolled his hips against Adam’s ass.

All their clothes were still in the way but it didn’t matter because it felt so fucking good anyway. He dared to let go of Ronan with one hand to loosen his tie and then work the first several buttons of his shirt open, running his hand over Ronan’s upper chest.

“Gonna get my mouth on all of you,” he breathed, curling his fingers against Ronan’s clavicle.

“Because that’s what a dutiful boyfriend would do?” Ronan teased in a tight voice.

“Because that’s the only thing I can think about right now.”

Ronan smirked and his eyes caught fire and Adam knew he was so far gone. Sex in a bathroom, who’d have thought.

Only, there’d be no sex in the bathroom because as soon as Ronan had started to let Adam down, had started to open shirts and shove pants aside, had started to bend Adam over a vanity table, the door opened and Henry fucking Cheng stood in the doorway.

Adam dropped his head to the smooth wood of the table and then looked at Henry from the corner of his eyes. Here he was, pants around his knees, Ronan’s hands on his hips, boxers to boxers, lips kiss swollen, hair a mess, still shivering with want, and Henry fucking Cheng was staring at them open mouthed.

“You’re not even together!” he accused eventually. Ronan, for his credit, hadn’t really stopped moving his hips against Adam’s ass. Adam knew he should stand up, pull his pants on and try to preserve some modesty but, God, Ronan felt really good behind him.

“That’s really what you’re going to be upset about?” Ronan asked dubiously. Henry stared at them and then blushed even more furiously.

“Put your clothes on, dammit! And there’s a table rotation in five minutes. You better be there.” He stormed out of the bathroom and Adam groaned. Ronan folded himself over Adam’s back and pressed soft kisses to Adam’s shoulder, having to fight with his shirt to clear a patch of skin to do so.

“Do you think he’ll tell the whole dinner party?” Adam asked.

“Ruin the aesthetic? I doubt it.” Ronan pulled him up when he stood and they dressed silently, if a bit distractedly, before returning to the dining area. Adam was still combing his hair with his fingers and Blue smirked when she saw. He sat beside Gansey with Ronan on his other side.

Eventually Gansey leaned over and said, “Your tie isn’t straight.”

Adam turned to Ronan instead of baiting himself. “Fix it for me, darlin’?”

The look Ronan gave him was so worth it and Adam thought he might have a good night after all.


	5. Ad Astra Per Aspera

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loved too fondly to be fearful

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No new ratings/warnings  
> Title: To the stars through difficulty

Ronan’s skin was tacky with sweat by the time they reached the little alcove in the mountain he’d dragged Adam out to. Adam, for his part, looked fucking amazing and just a little glistening and Ronan had half a mind to shove him off the cliff. He didn’t. Instead, he shrugged his bag off his shoulder and grabbed some of the blankets he’d brought and began to lay them out.

“Dad used to bring us up here all the time,” he explained as he worked. He took the larger comforter from Adam without looking and laid it across the other blankets before throwing himself down on them with a content sigh. He could feel his muscles unwinding and loosening and it felt like coming home.

Until Adam suddenly flopped down on top of him and evacuated all the air from Ronan’s body. “Oh my God, get off me,” Ronan wheezed, shoving Adam onto the ground and then dropping his weight on Adam’s chest.

It startled a laugh out of his boyfriend which made Ronan laugh and soon they were just holding onto each other, throwing elbows and not willing to get far enough away from each other to avoid getting hit. Ronan eventually got his weight situated over Adam’s body enough to hold him down, one hand at Adam’s wrists above their heads and the other curled into his hair.

“Is this the only view?” Adam asked. He still had a wide grin and smile lines were eating dozens of his summertime freckles. Ronan felt like his heart was going to burst in his chest and he quickly hid his face against Adam’s shoulder. “Ah, much better.” Adam rubbed his jaw against the softness of Ronan’s hair and then worked an arm free to pet along his hairline against his neck.

“It’s beautiful up here, Ro,”  he murmured softly. “I mean…I feel like I can touch the sky from here.”

“Parrish, so help me God, if you lift your arm and try, I’ll throw you off the mountain,” Ronan mumbled against the worn fabric of his shirt. No wonder he wasn’t sweating. There was hardly any material left to it. It wouldn’t keep heat in.

Adam laughed under him and wrapped his free arm around Ronan’s waist tightly. Even after all this time, Adam laugh was single handedly the most beautiful thing Ronan ever made. And he just caused it. It wasn’t really making it. Adam’s laugh was like coming home from school in the dead of winter and passing out in front of a fire. It was jumping in a lake with your best friend on the last day of school. It was the beautiful few minutes between afternoon and dusk in the summer when the bugs hadn’t come out yet. All these little infinite moments that Ronan wanted to live in for forever.

He yelped as Adam ruined everything and pinched his side, sending Ronan scampering off of him. When Adam looked over at him, Ronan could feel his own face pouting but he couldn’t stop it. It made Adam laugh again so the ensuing embarrassment was definitely worth it.

“What a morose look!” Adam laughed, reaching over to hold the side and back of Ronan’s head to pull him into a kiss. Ronan braced his hands on Adam’s waist and let them stay in the odd pose for just a few more kisses before he pushed Adam back and rearranged them on the blanket.

“I get that we saw the sunset while we climbed up,” Adam said, leaning his shoulder against Ronan’s and staring at the dark dusk that was falling over the mountains and leaving far sides in the dark. As it was, their little spot was beginning to darken and cool off. “But now it’s going to be dark most of the time we’re up here. What’s the point?”

Ronan wrapped his arm around Adam’s waist and tilted his head back, soaking in the last few desperate rays of sunshine.

When he was little, it wasn’t only Niall who brought him up to the mountains. When Ronan had fought with Declan or Niall or anyone at school, Aurora would bring her son up here and lay him down until the absence of the sun cooled him off. She could tell he’d have the tendency to temper that he sure enough grew into and she staved it off better than anything else in Ronan’s life had. Most anything. Maybe she was tied with Adam.

She’d hold him against her chest and point towards the stars and whisper in his ear, “Look there. Those celestial bodies are watching over your for your whole life. They hear you, Ronan. They hear everything you tell them. Whether you shout it or you whisper it, they’ll hear you and they’ll remember you. Your secrets, your hopes and wishes, your dreams and your nightmares.”

“Why are they listening to me?” Ronan had asked the first time she brought him up there. “No one else listens to my dreams.” Which at the time were to be a pirate and not in line with Declan’s wish to be a spy.

“Because you dream just like them, baby boy. You dream of stars and light and fire that you can control.”

Ronan’s cheeks had heated because it was embarrassing. One, that his mother knew what he dreamt and two, that he dreamt of lightening bugs and trees while Declan dreamt of their father and adventure and Matthew dreamt of dogs and soldiers.

“You create just as much as they do,” Aurora had said, kissing his temple and then hugging him tight. He’d wanted to exist in that moment for forever too. It was different than with Adam though. When he thought of forever it Adam, it wasn’t necessarily that stationary moment. He just wanted the moments for the rest of his life, for a longer life just to spend the extra time with Adam. With his mom, he just wanted to stay in her arms. He didn’t care if he aged or not. If his brothers ever found him. If his father ever found them. He just wanted to stay with his mom and never let anything else happen again.

That would have been simpler. But he couldn’t deny the same feeling of blooming magic and wonder in his chest as he sat next to Adam and watched the stars slowly peak out of dusk and then dark blue jean sky and then finally the velvety expanse of nothing but far away secret keepers. Adam had traced senseless designs on the back of Ronan’s hands as they sat in silence together while darkness fell. The only sounds that broke through the peace was the eventual crickets and cicadas and maybe a bicker or two that would end in kisses and bodies pressed closer together.

Finally, when Ronan deemed it dark enough and he was starting to get irritated with the mosquitos buzzing around, he shifted to wrap his legs on either side of Adam, holding them chest to back and tangling his fingers with Adam’s in the other’s lap.

“Hey, Parrish,” he mumbled against Adam’s neck as he pressed light kisses to his skin.

“Yeah, Lynch?” Adam hummed back, tilting his head to Ronan’s shoulder.

“Did you know the stars are listening?”

“Tell them to mind their own business.” Ronan snorted against his shoulder and Adam chuckled softly. “What do you tell the stars, Ronan Lynch?” he asked.

Ronan paused because he hadn’t expected Adam to ask anything, much less that. He screwed his courage to the sticking place–somewhere between his heart and Adam’s–and took a breath. “I tell them that I’m afraid.”

“When are you afraid?”

“I’m always afraid.”

“What are you afraid of?”

“I’m afraid of losing.”

“Losing what?”

“You. This. Memories. The future.”

Adam shifted in Ronan’s hold and freed his hands to bring them up to Ronan’s face. “You’re not going to lose any of that,” he said with so much confidence it actually made Ronan feel it too. “I’m not going anywhere and as long as I’m here, I promise I’ll make sure everything else is too.”

Ronan shivered and felt his eyes close involuntarily. Then he felt Adam’s mouth on his. His lips parted under Adam’s and he felt Adam’s smile, even as he kept the kiss chaste and soft. It was just as hot to just be sharing air together as it was to have Adam pinned beneath him. Or to be pinned beneath Adam. He wasn’t picky.

“I love you,” he breathed without opening his eyes, without really pulling away from Adam.

“Are you telling me or the stars?” Adam asked, a laugh still in his voice that made Ronan’s shoulders loosen just a little.

“I’m telling both. I want the stars to remember.”

“Is that what they do? Listen and remember?”

“That’s what they do.”

Adam kissed him again and Ronan relaxed finally. When they parted next, Adam turned over in Ronan’s arms again and looked up at the sky.

“I love Ronan Lynch!” he shouted with a laugh. Because where Ronan would go quiet, Adam would be loud. “Is this how I promise myself to you?” he asked over his shoulder. “Tell the stars and know I can never go back on it?”

“God, I love you,” Ronan said instead of answering and then swooping in for a breath-taking kiss.

“Did you drag me all the way up here just to promise ourselves to each other?” Adam asked once they’d pulled apart and gasped in a few breaths.

Ronan thought about the box tucked under some baggies of sandwiches and extra jackets.  _Not yet_ , he thought. Tonight was something magical in its own right, now.

“You said you’d never seen a light show,” Ronan said as he leaned back and pulled Adam with him. “I give you the  _Perseids_.”

Almost on cue, in a fashion only befitting a magical dream boy who talked to the stars, three meteors flew across the sky right after each other. Adam gasped above him and brought a hand up to his mouth.

“Shooting stars. I’ve never…” He stared up at the sky and Ronan felt when he took in a shaky breath. He remained quiet.

“Did you make a wish?” Ronan asked softly, trailing his hand up and down Adam’s stomach.

“I already promised myself to the only thing I’d wish for.”

Ronan smiled softly and kissed his jaw. “Me too, Adam,” he murmured. “Me too.”


	6. Nemophilist / Coruscate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How weird

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No new ratings  
> CW: For brief mentions of abuse about half way through starting and ending with the paragraph that begins, "Mostly Adam had had nightmares"  
> Ronan goes to college too  
> Title: A haunter of the forest / reflecting brightly

Adam Parrish was weird. There was no denying it. The kid was weird. Lovable and fantastic and wholly better than everyone else on campus, but weird. The only person odder than Parrish was the shadow that skulked after him because, holy shit, Ronan Lynch was downright demonic.

It wasn’t that they’d particularly done anything to earn the title (well, Lynch had) but there was just something that charged the air when they were around and set the natural order of the universe a little askew. When Adam’s fingers brushed your hand as you were passing something around, it sent a shiver through your body and a pulse of energy coursing through your veins. Lynch just made everyone feel like they were being watched from the shadows in a room.

Adam had a knack for knowing people before they’d said too much. Their past, their future, their general disposition to the world. Ronan knew what made your heart thrum, usually in fear. They’d be a fearsome pair just at that alone but they also looked like they could take over the world. Tour groups stared at them when the parties passed each other. Freshmen scampered out of the bathroom when Ronan walked in. Or dragged Adam in. (It was probably best everyone vacate the bathroom when Ronan dragged Adam into it)

But, if you asked Ronan and Adam if they felt the same way about each other, you’d get an embarrassed smile and a wicked smirk and you’d just make out Adam’s, “Nah, there’s nothing special about us,” before Ronan would loudly interject about magic and dreams and holding the whole world between their minds and hands.

Ronan was just weird. At least Adam was sweet.

Laying out on one of the lawns during the first cool day of the Fall, Adam really didn’t think there was much special about them. Other than the obvious things they were semi-trying to move past. They were just two of some dozens of students soaking up the sun without sweating instantaneously. Adam was reading on his stomach and Ronan was pulling grass out of the ground and sprinkling it over Adam’s neck and shoulders and then down the swoop of his spine.

The sunshine slowly baking his skin and hair and the mindless way Ronan was rubbing his arm and the homey smell of Ronan’s flannel shirt that was doubling at Adam’s pillow currently was enough to lull Adam into a trance and then a nap. He’d been up all night studying. And not studying. He deserved five minutes in the sun.

No one ever asked him what he dreamed about. Gansey was more than excited to hear from Ronan and Blue had her own dreams to discuss and the psychics just smirked at him when he walked through the door so they had some idea of at least part of his subconscious. The Gray Man was fond of him for some reason but Mr. Gray wasn’t exactly the type to suddenly dig into Adam’s dreams without Adam having brought them up first. They enjoyed several deep conversations over marginally better psychic tea when Adam was home from school but Adam wasn’t sure how to talk about what he dreamed. He didn’t really want to anyway. It was nice to have those few things that were just his.

Adam Parrish dreamed in bursts of color and winding vines that he couldn’t quite follow. He dreamed of adventure in a life he didn’t lead. He dreamed of being so accomplished at the top of a forest that he couldn’t remember climbing. He only remembered reaching for the next flower and the next knot of vines and the next thicket of branches. He dreamed of falling into piles of leaves and waking up feeling as if he was being held.

Sure, maybe he couldn’t pull things out of his dreams except for a longing to do more, be more. But that was okay because he never felt like he needed to take anything out. It felt like he was bringing things in. Flashes of blonde hair while he was racing along swooping trails. Bright little bugs that lit up the dark parts of his forest. The entire sense of adventure. Adam had never dreamt of something like that before all of this.

Mostly Adam had had nightmares of being stuck at home. Of running and not moving. Of fighting and not being able to speak. There was no ache to explain the way he’d wake up on nights he dreamed he finally stood up for himself and yet found no words had come to his defense. He’d dreamed of guns and knives and fists. Of hospitals and lies. He’d dreamed of failure.

Now he dreamed of not only happiness and action but of adventures he completed. Of accomplishment and the euphoria that followed.

Normally he didn’t dream of that in the middle of the lawn while laying atop an open book. “Oh, Ronan, you bastard,” he groused as he sat up and wiped spit from his cheek. Or, least, he was going to until he realized there were long leaves of grass grown over his arms and wrapped together at the top.

“I put a leaf under your mouth. Don’t worry you didn’t drool on your book,” Ronan mumbled next to him.

“Ronan…” Adam said uncertainly, looking at his boyfriend who was playing with something in his hands. Ronan glanced over with a raised brow before his eyes caught on Adam’s imprisonment. “Dude, what the hell? That’s awesome,” he laughed. He reached out with one hand and a little orb of light floated away. Without looking, Ronan snatched it back with his other hand. He ran his fingers over the grass and then tugged on their twirled tops. They held still and steady.

“Let go,” Adam snapped at Ronan, but he was shocked to find the long fingers of grass unraveling and freeing his arm. Ronan and Adam both stared. Adam tentatively lifted his arm and then touched the grass on the other, watching it unravel as well as his gently petted his fingers over the loose knots.

“Adam, seriously, what the hell?” They both reached out for the suddenly normal patch of grass where Adam’s arm had just been.

“I don’t know. That’s never happened before.” He tangled his fingers with Ronan’s and looked up. “What’s in your hand?”

“More light orbs,” Ronan said, opening his other hand between them and letting the soft light reflect on their faces in the late evening dusk.

“I make grass grow and you make fire,” Adam laughed softly, unbelievingly.

“Just need water and air now.”

“You have enough hot air for the both of us,” Adam assured and earned a knock against his shoulder for his troubles. He let himself fall backwards and pulled Ronan over him with their connected hands. Ronan moved easily over him and leaned down to kiss him softly, holding the light orb against Adam’s chest. It burned just a little. A way that made him feel like he was still dreaming. Like he was on top of a canopy of perfect foliage and staring at the forever that stretched in front of him.

And if some poor studious student was sitting in the building just opposite of them and saw moving earth and floating fire…well, Adam Parrish and Ronan Lynch were just weird and magical and never explained.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another short one because I was too dedicated to the idea to go for something I could do something longer with


	7. Suspirium

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Teach me something new for every day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No new warnings/ratings.  
> A normal AU in which Adam never got out of the public school system, never met Ronan and Gansey, and could never dare to dream of politics and becomes a teacher instead and Ronan didn’t dream up Opal just…got her. IDK  
> Title: Deep breath/heartbeat

Ronan is in a scowling mood. He scowls while Opal runs around his legs. He scowls as he buttons a shirt over his tank top and then unbuttons it again so it just hangs open. He scowls as he tries to find a pair of shoes that aren’t caked in mud. He scowls when he realizes his kid still hasn’t changed out of her stained shirt.

 “Opal, I told you to go change,” he says, tugging on an old pair of converse that makes him miss lazy school days with Gansey so much a physical ache erupts in his chest.

 It’s not that he doesn’t like  where he is in his life right now. He loves it. He loves the Barns. He loves Opal. He loves farmer’s markets most weekends. Hell, he doesn’t even mind fighting with the school system again with Opal. It’s the part of the school system he never had to deal with that’s really getting him going. He loves Opal but he really doesn’t like kids. Any of them. None of her friends. None of her classmates. Not the shrieking brats at the store. Opal is his and he loves her but that was as far as the love for kids went. And, God, the parents. Ronan’s parents had never been really involved in his schooling. He couldn’t even remember that much that warranted their involvement. Maybe private school would be better for Opal. Certainly better for his nerves. He hated the way the other parents looked at him. He hated their snide comments about how young he was and how old, in relation, Opal was. He hated every single one of them and he hated having to do anything that would put him in close proximity to him. So, yes, he was scowling.

 “I wanna match you,” Opal says from where she’s sitting on a chair stacked high with clothes Ronan just hasn’t gotten around to putting up. And it’s true, she’s trying to match him. Ronan’s shirt is a light blue plaid flannel and her shirt is almost the same shade except for where Spaghetti-Os have discolored it to an unnatural orange.

 “Well,  you can match me after I do the laundry. We’re going to be late.”

 Opal makes a face, her lips going in the most unamused straight line that looks like she took it right off of Ronan’s own face, and then bounces back to her connected room. She comes out a moment later in a navy blue shirt that kind of matches some of the stripes on Ronan’s shirt.

 Ronan had finally managed to get dressed and he tugged on Opal’s ponytails. “I thought I told you to behave at school.”

 “I do behave!” she objects quickly, looking shocked and just a little bit hurt and a lot a bit indignant.

 “I don’t think there has to be mandatory parent teacher meetings for kids who behave,”  he argues just as hotly. He lets go of her pigtails to squeeze her shoulders.

 “No, Mr. Parrish set up appointments for everyone! He said so because he knew there were parents like you.” She jabs a finger into Ronan’s stomach and startles a sound out of him.

 “Well, I think Mr. Parrish lied so none of you would keep your parents from hearing what little shits you are.”

 Opal rolls her eyes and grabs Ronan’s wallet and his keys. “Can we go? You’re going to make us late like you do every morning.”

 Ronan rolls his eyes in turn and sticks out his tongue at her. “Have you brushed your teeth?”

 “Have you?”

 Lightening fast, he reaches out to tickle her sides and sends her shrieking in laughter down the other end of the house and out the door. He ducks into her room to grab the jacket she always wants and her little hat before following her. She’s already tucked herself into his car, dutifully awaiting him to strap in the rest of her car seat. She was small and he was a relatively reckless driver still. Sue him for keeping his kid safe.

 Opal prattles on and on about nothing in particular for the entire ride to the school. It’s not a long ride. Most of it is getting away from the Barns and into town. But she manages to cover topics from the goats’ reaction when she read them her weekend reading for class to how she watched the baby pig poop to Mr. Parrish’s dog that he sometimes brings to class after sending out a permission note. Opalis fond of the huge thing. Ronan’s never seen it himself but she says it’s as tall as she is when it’s standing on all its paws and that it has scraggly hair. (“Like the beard you try to grow, Kerah.”) Opal’s a friend to animals everywhere so Ronan’s not totally sold on a giant dog wandering around a school.

 Ronan doesn’t know much about Mr. Parrish. Opal likes him well enough but doesn’t talk at length about him. He knows that Mr. Parrish is young-ish, though Opal is about as good with ages as Ronan is with math. If given the chance, she will tell people, confidently, that Gansey is still in high school.  He knows that Mr. Parrish is soft spoken and he has a dog and he lives alone. He knows that he’s kind and smart and that no one is really afraid of him. (This observation because Opal’s first grade teacher was potentially a demon in disguise who hated all of the students according to, well, all the students)

 Opal is still talking as Ronan parks the car and got out. Even when he starts unbuckling her and pulling her out of the back seat. She only falls silent when a few of her classmates were walking out the door. Then she presses closer to Ronan and holding onto his leg tightly.

 “Opal, I can’t walk like that. Just...hold on.” He unwinds her and then takes her hand, swinging their arms between their bodies until she smiles and then starts to laugh.

 “Stop. Stop! You’re gonna rip my arm off.”

 “Good. Then you can’t try to take my leg with you everywhere.”

 It isn’t hard to find Mr. Parrish’s room. There’s a constant flow of students in and out of the second grade wing and Mr. Parrish’s seems to be the quietest but warmest at the far end of the hall. Ronan’s met Mr. Parrish before. Not been introduced but sat in the same room. During Open House, another required attendance thing, he’d sat in the back of the room, bouncing Opal on his knee and hugging her close because she didn’t feel good but wanted to go to avoid getting in trouble. Gansey had been having a heart attack over some girl he met on campus and so Ronan was a little too preoccupied to pay attention to the quiet man at the front of the room who was having to deal with more problematic parents than Ronan was going to be.

 His room hadn’t been quite completed yet. There were signs on the doors that said corny shit like, “Excuse our mess! The children are learning!” to cover up the fact that the second grade wing had only been completed a few days before the year started. It still smelt like new wood and fresh paint and the floors hadn’t been waxed yet.Ronan hadn’t realized how much he’d come to associate waxed floors with a new year. Parrish’s classroom had been mostly boxes at that point. There was a measly reading corner with a bean bag and a few blankets. A few dozen picture books had lined a shelf and a half. Boxes piled up in empty spaces. There had been an activity corner that was just a table with three boxes sat under it. His own desk had had only a few knick-knacks.

 Now, the room is cluttered and lived in and warm. There’s faux candles on Parrish’s desk and the window sills. Hundreds of books line his shelves, ranging from little cardboard picture books to the Harry Potter series. The activity center has a treasure chest full of costumes and props and there are little science experiment tables set up. Arts and crafts coat the walls or dry on racks. His desk is still bare of personal effects but there are dozens of little notes and drawings from his students.

 And then there’s Mr. Parrish. Ronan didn’t remember Mr. Parrish being so handsome. He was just finishing up with the family in front of them--some snot nosed kid who was playing on a phone while his mother had more tan on her than Ronan could afford to get in a month. (Excluding inheritance and life insurance. He didn’t use it that often, let him live)

 Parrish looks like something out of a book. He looks transported from Princess Bride or some steampunk YA novel. He’s beautifully bronzed and his forearms are defined from where they’re visible beneath the rolled sleeves of his baby blue button up. There are a few scars along his skin and his hands are just a little disfigured to suggest a life of work beyond the classroom. His hair is messy but he’s tried to part it somehow. He’s really nicely proportioned. ‘As you wish,’ Ronan wants to say as he sinks to his knees.

 Fuck, that’s his kid’s teacher. His kid who isn’t holding onto his hand anymore but running to the teacher to envelope him in a bear hug when he looks up at them and smiles wide and squats down to open his arms to her.

 Ronan does not look at the way his dress pants pull tight over his thighs. He busies himself with glaring at the mother who is sneering at him, looking over his casual dress and his youth. Once she’s gone, he turns his attention back to Parrish. He’s looking up at Ronan and, Christ, his eyes look like every type of cliche for gemstone eyes. Ronan’s mouth goes dry and he takes a moment to swallow and try to remember how vocal cords work.

 “Mr. Parrish,” he says, stepping forward and holding out a hand. “I’m Ronan Lynch. Opal’s guardian.” it still felt wrong to say father. Not wrong in that he didn’t think he was. Just… It was a difficult situation to explain to people. She didn’t call him dad so he didn’t say he was her father. He’d let her decide how this relationship was going to go. As it was, he thought they were pretty fucking special without dumb ass names to go with it.

 “Mr. Lynch, Opal’s very favorable of you.” Adam smiles and Ronan’s heart tries to vacate his chest. Mr. Parrish looks very good hugging Ronan’s kid. Parrish looks very good on his knees…

 Goddammit.

 “Please, have a seat, Mr. Lynch,” Parrish says, standing up and gesturing to the undersized chair in front of his desk. Opal laughs when Ronan tries to sit on it with little success. She has to climb onto hers a little bit and the difference is hilarious to her.

 Parrish looks at home behind the desk and Ronan suddenly wishes he had  Opal in his lap so his hands had something to do rather than pick uselessly at callouses.

 “Opal is extremely gifted. I don’t think I’ve ever had a student as eager to learn as her.” Opal preens next to Ronan and then sticks her tongue out at him.

 “I told you I wasn’t in trouble.”

 Adam smiles at them and Ronan feels like jumping out a window. “How long have you been teaching?”

 “About three years now. I was lucky enough to get hired on here as soon as I graduated. It’s technically the school I went to.”

 Ronan would rather die on the streets before he went back to Aglionby. This guy must not have much of a life. “Technically?”

 “Well, they tore down the building I actually went to school in. It’s part of the bus barn now.”

 Ronan only vaguely remembered that happening a few years ago. There were supposedly old tunnels under the school and Ronan had had to remind Gansey that they had a two year old in the next room and mindless fucking off to explore potential holes in the ground was not an option for them anymore.

 As if reading his mind--and sometimes Ronan honest to God thought Opal could--she asks, “Were the tunnels real?”

 Adam furrows his brow before that brilliant smile takes over. “You  know, I’d tell you…”

 “But then I’d have to kill you. I know. I know! You always say that.” She pouts at him and Ronan reaches over to yank on her ponytail.

 “Behave.”

 “Opal, do you want to go wait in the hallway while I talk to...Ronan about some adult stuff.”

 “I’m an adult,” she says petulantly. Ronan is still too fascinated by the way Parrish caught himself from saying, ‘your dad’ to much care what his kid’s saying. Whatever it was, it made Adam smile, something soft and sweet. Ronan was going to set himself on fire.

 “Can you go show your classmates how to be an adult out in the hallway?”

 Opal takes an irritated breath and slides off the chair and stalks off to the hallway, pulling the door behind her.

 “Is something wrong?” Ronan asks after watching his kid disappear into the gaping maw of the world without him. He didn’t like it. It’s why he didn’t watch when he dropped her off in the morning.

 “No, no. Opal is a pleasure to have in class.” Ronan snorted but Parrish continued. “It’s just that Opal is...not shy, per se. But she doesn’t interact with the other kids all that much. She’s very confident when she’s answering questions or doing work but as soon as I suggest she ask someone for a color or to give her her scissors back, she gets a scared look in her eyes. Have you noticed it?”

 It’s like a sudden and swift shot to his gut. Something reminiscent of his school days, picking fights behind cafes and bars and on dirt roads in the glare of his headlights. He hadn’t thought about Opal potentially being alone when she went to school. Parrish was right. Opal was outgoing and talkative and confident but he’s never really seen her with anyone other than the few friends she occasionally asked to be taken out with. He did remember her saying she and Gracie, Maya, and Sheila weren’t in the same class this year. Shit.

 Ronan hadn’t had the best time in school when he was younger. He met Gansey in the sixth grade and after that it smoothed out but he remembered the aching loneliness until his brother would come over and eat with him or some girl would take pity on him and be his partner in class. The idea that the same thing was happening to Opal made it hard to breathe for the sudden and intense pain blooming in his chest.

 “Mr. Lynch?” Parrish reaches forward and Ronan instinctively jerks back. Parrish doesn’t look pityingly at him. Instead, Ronan recognizes the realization in his eyes. And...some kind of understanding. “You and she are very similar.”

 “What?” Ronan croaks out. His heart is still hammering in his chest and he can’t really concentrate with the lightheadedness that’s suddenly taken over.

 “Your facial expressions. She looks just like that when I suggest she talks to other students.”

 Ronan clears his throat once, twice, a third time before he reaches up to hide wiping at his eyes with pinching his nose and rubbing his temples. “Uh, no. I’ve never...I’ve never…” It’s a fucking lie though. Opal clings onto him whenever she sees someone at the grocery store. She’d just done it five minutes ago outside the school. Jesus, fuck he hadn’t even noticed. “I’ll talk to her. Um. Yeah. She’s...at home she talks all the time. You can’t make her shut up. But..yeah. She...doesn’t talk to kids when we’re out.” He swallows hard and stands up so quickly the chair topples over behind him.

 Parrish stands as well, reaching out as if to steady Ronan. “Mr. Lynch, your daughter is beyond fine. There’s nothing wrong with her at all. I’d say there’s something very special about her.”

 Ronan glares at him but then the man’s image blurs and distorts. When it clears again, Ronan can feel tears on his cheeks. “I know she’s special,” he huffs, wiping his cheeks and then squeezing his eyes shut which only lets a few more tears fall. “I don’t need anyone to tell me that.”

 He can hear Parrish move from the other side of the desk and he feels an arm around his shoulders. It’s a little awkward and he can tell Adam is kind of tip toeing to do so. “You’re raising her alone, right?” he asks.

 Ronan thinks of Matthew baby sitting and Gansey showing up to suddenly steal her away for a weekend of adventure. He thinks of Declan and the nice ass shit that Opal owns because of him. He thinks of all the old ladies at the farmers market who are so enamoured with her, Ronan and Opal always leave with a crate full of things they didn’t buy. He thinks of her friends’ moms who are always happy to keep her overnight for a sleepover or grab her from school if Ronan is still stuck at the vet’s office or in the middle of a field somewhere.

 But then he thinks about trying to figure out what foods she likes and avoid allergies. He thinks about the way he panics about how much money they might have with the inheritance split between them. He thinks about laying awake at night and staring at the ceiling while he listens to her in the next room. He thinks about how many times he’s made her cry and slam doors when he punishes her. He thinks about the looks they get in public and wonders if Opal sees them too. He thinks about breaking down in hot teachers’ classrooms because his kid talks to the goats more freely than her peers and God, where did he go wrong? He was fucking this kid up. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go.

 “I have help but...yeah, it’s me and her,” he eventually gets out. “And the cows.” He doesn’t know why he says it. It just comes out.

 “I think she’s partial to the goats,” Adam answers without missing a beat and Ronan hiccups a small laugh.

 “The cows are more helpful.”

 Parrish laughs then and Ronan’s ecstatic heart is at war with his dying heart. “Ronan Lynch, you are a good man. And you have a very good child. And I know it can be hard feeling like you’re on your own. Trust me, I know. But your little girl is all the proof that everything you’re doing is right. For her, for you, for the world. I think she’s going to go on to do great things.”

 Ronan nodded, not willing to draw out any stupid pessimistic fight. They stay standing like that until Ronan can breathe normally and he pulls away. Parrish squeezes Ronan’s arm and then leans over his desk. Ronan allows himself to look at how his dress pants pull tight over his ass.

 “Listen, I know it’s a little unconventional but if you ever need help with anything, _anything_ Ronan, let me know. This is my number. I answer most of the time unless I’m with the kids.” He smiles that smile and hands over a post it note shaped like a lightening bug. Ronan lets himself draw his fingers over Parrish’s and tries to memorize the beautiful knobs and wrinkles on them by touch alone.

 “Even if it’s something as simple as coffee. I know it can be nice to have conversations with adults when you primarily deal with children.” His grin is crooked, pulled to the left side of his face like it’s trying to connect with a pale scar that snakes down from his temple to his cheekbone, detouring to the corner of his eye halfway there. Ronan wants to take him apart at every seam and hear every story as they restitch themselves back together.

 “Coffee,” Ronan answers softly, looking at the blocky number. He recognizes it from the grades on Opal’s homework. He nods and bites his lips. “Thank you. It was nice meeting you, Mr. Parrish.”

 “Please, call me Adam. Especially when you ask me out.” And, oh, his grin can turn into a smirk that has no business being in a second grade classroom. Ronan Lynch was doomed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don’t ask me how an eighteen year old acquires a baby and raises it. That’s why I didn’t choose that prompt. If you don’t think Adam Parrish would become a teacher and help kids like him, you’re wrong. And where’s my child Noah you ask? Please be considerate and don’t. My brain was saying future AU for some reason so he was dead in my mind :(


	8. Industria Vitae

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Energize this

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No new warning/ratings  
> Title: Energy of existence

Ronan and Adam had done a lot of crazy things. Searching for dead Welsh kings. Finding non-dead Welsh princesses. Killing a Latin professor and leading to another’s demise. Demon possession. Death several times over. Felony assault. Dreaming up children. Then all the normal stupid teenage shit. Blowjobs outside churches. Sex above it. Street racing. Sex in the back of cars that street raced. Breaking into old houses (even if one of them did technically own it). Dropping out of high school. Questionable decisions were basically most of their life and Adam wasn’t sure how he’d felt about that. The memories of Aglionby and who they’d been then were a little blurry in his mind. Times ran together and memories tangled in his sleep until he couldn’t quite remember what happened when and what happened to him.

But things were quieter now. They had a house that they (legally) owned. They’d worked out what Opal was and how to handle this dream creature. Adam had gone to school and was taking a year off before heading off to Harvard for his doctorates. They’d been looking at places up there they could all stay. They painted the house. They bought the appliances they needed. They decorated Opal’s room. They named farm animals and brought baby lambs into the house when it rained. They were normal. For God’s sake, Adam taught at a summer school for gifted children. They couldn’t be more vanilla if they tried.

Gansey was the one who’d gone on to continue searching out crazy tidbits of science and history. It was poor Blue who was spending most of the time she wasn’t in class out exploring rainforests with him. It was Henry who fully encouraged this behavior from whatever beautiful South American home they were renting together. So Adam didn’t understand why he was sitting on the edge of his and Ronan bed in their dark house in the middle of Nowhere Henrietta, Virginia as he watched a cow levitate in the air.

It was one of Ronan’s dream cows. Not one of Niall’s sleeping ones. Not one that Ronan had bought from someone else. It floated in the air, continuing to chew whatever it was that dream cows ate. Adam reached behind him and hit Ronan’s arm lightly until he figured out what he was holding and then shaking the man.

“Opal, go the fuck to sleep,” Ronan muttered.

“It’s me, dipshit,” Adam answered before shaking him more vigorously.

“Parrish, go the fuck to sleep,” Ronan snarled instead, reaching up to bat away Adam’s arm.

Gansey and Blue and Henry had gone to Roswell on their roadtrip before Blue packed up for school. They hadn’t actually been searching for anything but it was something none of them wanted to deny themselves if they were going to go through New Mexico anyway. They hadn’t found anything and Gansey was a particularly good finder.

Yet here was a cow, levitating in air in a beam of light.

“Lynch, one of your cows is being abducted.”

“What the fuck are you talking about? Go to sleep,” Ronan growled, propping himself up on an elbow and glaring up at Adam. he seemed to realize that Adam’s face was well lit in what was supposed to be their dark room. He scrambled up to sit next to Adam, hand on his thigh and digging into the bare skin roughly. “What the fuck is that?”

“You didn’t dream that up?” Adam asked, looking at him exasperatedly.

“Hell no I didn’t dream up moonlight that floats my cow!”

“Opal,” Adam gasped. Both men scrambled over each other to get to her room but she was curled up in bed, quietly bleating into a stuffed animal that was pressed to her face. Adam had never been so happy to see her messy hair tangled up on her pillow.

“So what’s outside?” Adam asked.

“And what does it want?”

They both grabbed a pair of sweatpants from wherever they’d last been discarded. If the way they were sliding off his hips was any indication, Adam had grabbed some of Ronan’s. Ronan found a tank top of his that was rank even from the distance Adam was standing from him and Adam pulled on a sweatjacket he’d left on the couch. (Actually, Ronan had been the one to yank it off and then carry Adam away from his pile of clothes so technically he left it there)

They tugged on mud boots that were by the door. They were  _domestic_. They had clothes scattered around and boots ready to go by the door so they could tromp after their kid in the rain. There should not be a levitating cow in a field.

Adam knew what it was before they went outside. He’d had a vague sense of it the whole time. But, dammit, it was still damn irritating to see it and be right. Above their west field, there was a large UFO, beaming down light and pulling up the dream cow still. It was slow going but the cow was looking around now, bits of food occasionally falling from its velvety mouth. This was unbelievable.

Ronan Lynch was unbelievable because he was waving his arms wildly and shouting. “Put my fucking cow down! Hey! I dream that! Put it down!”

The field went dark and then the cow fell back to the earth a pretty terrible thud. “You fuckers!” Ronan shouted, running to the small crater the cow had created.

Adam chased after him because of course he did. He’d only just caught Ronan’s arm and started to shout about not knowing what was wrong with the cow now when the light burst on again. Directly over them. Adam’s fingers went even tighter around Ronan’s arm and Ronan turned into him to hold onto Adam tightly as they lifted from the ground. When Adam dared look down, he realized they were going a lot faster than the cow had. He pressed his face back into Ronan’s shoulder.

At least if they died, everything at the farms would fall asleep. Opal would be asleep. The thought was enough to make Adam want to lean over and throw up. What would Gansey think when he inevitably made his way home and found the Barns slumbering yet again? What would he think to find no body for either Adam or Ronan? Would he think Adam had killed Ronan and fled? Would he suspect foul play? Would Cabeswater be a suspect?

And, worse yet, if they didn’t die and Opal woke up alone, what would she do? Gansey, Henry, and Blue were thousands of miles away. She’d wait at least a day to call them, probably. Would she be smart enough to call the psychics? Would the trio believe her enough to call them for her? Would she be okay? Did she still know the number? What if the aliens came back for her?

Adam suddenly started struggling, wanting desperately to protect his daughter. She was his daughter dammit. They were a family. They had specific cups and plates that each of them liked and Adam couldn’t bear to lose that now.

Struggling only made them rise faster and Adam realized he was openly sobbing against Ronan’s shoulder. Why them? Why not Gansey who wanted this shit or Blue who would be so much more prepared for this? Why not the psychics who probably believed in aliens?

Ronan clenched his fingers in Adam’s jacket and Adam squeezed his eyes shut. When he opened them again, they were on the obvious command deck of the ship. Adam didn’t know what he expected but something akin to Star Trek wasn’t it. Everything was sleek metal and tiled. A side to side reaching window spanned the front of the ship and offered an unobstructed few of Henrietta as it stretched just beyond the tips of the trees. Ronan was still holding onto him tightly. Adam couldn’t tell which of them was shaking harder.

Two eyes blinked at them from where they hung suspended in the air. “Fuck off,” Ronan spat.

A mouth appeared below the eyes and they looked suspiciously like Ronan’s. “Fuck off,” the lips said in a dead ringer for Ronan’s angry growl.

A tentacle looking appendage appeared and slapped the half face in the air behind it. It stood a few feet behind the eyes though and Adam shivered at imaging how long its head was.

“Why us?” Adam asked towards the appendage. Lips appeared and Adam thought they might have been his but he'd never noticed such a pronounced bow in his upper lip.

“You have an energy we want to learn.” Its words were staccato and halting. The voice changed every few syllables and it was more than disconcerting.

“You can’t learn energy, dipshits,” Ronan snarled.

Another appendage appeared and hovered in front of Ronan’s face. Whether the alien meant to hit or touch him was lost to Adam as Ronan stumbled back so fast he ended up sprawling on the ground and continued to scramble back.

“We wish to study you. Your cow had much energy but then you both walked out. Alone you are impressive but together you fried one of our readers.”

“We’re not good examples of normal humans,” Adam tried to placate, pulling Ronan up. A pretty blush was working over his cheeks and he was glaring at the disembodied pieces.

“We are not looking for normal humans.” Adam shivered when the alien used Adam’s own voice to answer. “We are looking for energy sources.”

“Look, we’ve been through this before. We got rid of a demon who wanted our energy. I died for it. My baby brother almost died. My kid. You aren’t getting it.” Adam squeezed Ronan’s hand gently.

“A demon,” the first aline said. “Of the Christian theology?”

“I don’t know what book it crawled out of but we put it right back.”

“We don’t wish to take your energy, Ronan Niall Lynch, Kerah, Darlin’, Greywarren, Shithead, Snake.” Ronan stumbled back again and only remained standing because Adam kept a hold on him even though it came at the cost of the comfort of his arm socket.

“Your child will be okay,” the other thing placated and both of them clutched onto each other a little tighter. “We can see that you are worried about her. Both of you are. You love her and she is small.”

“Don’t you fucking touch her,” Ronan snarled in a way that sent shivers over Adam’s back.

“We wish you no harm. Nor your child. We wish only to examine your energy. Perhaps you’d rather we come back later.”

“She’s going to be waking up,” Adam explained as calmly as he could.

“Time exists differently here. Your child will be safe as long as you are up here.” Adam’s lips smiled at him and he didn’t like it.

“What do you want to know?” he asked.

————————————-

Adam woke up tangled in the sheets, sweat lining his body and a hoodie slid up to his armpits. Ronan was sprawled out half on the bed and half off, sweatpants tugged halfway down his thighs. They’d slept hard apparently.

Adam sat up and yawned, ran a hand through his hair, and then peeled his boxers off of his sweaty legs. He cocked his head at the sweatpants that were bunched around his ankles but he figured he’d just grabbed Ronan’s by accident and kicked them off in the middle of the night.

He reached behind him and shook Ronan’s knee until he heard the man hit the ground when he was shaken from his balance. “Ow, you fucker, what the fuck?” Ronan grumbled. His legs disappeared from the bed and then he clawed his way back into the messy sheets. “My head fucking hurts.”

“Yeah, I’m still kind of tired too. I think I slept too much.”

“Dreamed too hard?”

“I think we know when you dream too hard,” Adam assured with a grin. He leaned over to kiss Ronan and got a groan for his troubles.

“Go brush your teeth. You smell like a frog died in your mouth.”

“You’re so charming in the mornings,” Adam scoffed. He’d just stood up when Opal let herself into their room, dragging her pillow behind her. She crawled into the bed and wormed her way against Ronan’s side.

“I had a bad dream,” she said without prompting. “The cow died and there were aliens and you weren’t there.”

A cow mooed outside and another butted its head against the wall of the house, upset at not having been fed yet. Adam scratched at a long thin rash on his chest that pulse with every heartbeat. Kids and their imaginations. He frowned when he saw Ronan mimicking his movements as his other hand stroked Opal’s hair. There was a similar rash across his chest too.

“That’s just what I was dreaming about. You must have gotten in my head somehow.”

But Adam felt like he knew that dream too. The cow butted its head against the wall again and Adam looked out the window to see which one it was. Most of the other cows were gathered around a hole in the west field and the grass looked dead. It picked at something in his mind and he was so engrossed in thought that he tripped over his feet falling backwards when a dream cow suddenly showed up in front of the window.

It was staring at Adam and…was it… _glowing_? 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [My tumblr!](http://abarbaricyalp.tumblr.com/)  
>  I love all of you!


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